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Abstract: The future of coastal wetlands will depend on the combined effects of climate change and human impacts from urbanization and coastal management. Disentangling the effects of these factors is difficult, but satellite imagery archives provide a way to track biological and physical changes in wetlands over recent decades to reveal how coastal wetlands have been changing in response to climate and human drivers. In this study, we used Landsat to monitor the conditions of 32 coastal wetlands in southern California from 1984 to 2019 and identify environmental and human drivers of these trends. Wetland conditions were characterized by vegetation greenness, using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and by habitat composition, derived from areal estimates of wetland and subtidal habitats. Overall, wetlands displayed three types of long‐term response: greening and gaining wetland (10), greening and losing wetland (16), and browning and losing wetland (6). Regional environmental drivers with overall positive effects on wetland NDVI were sea level, wave height, and precipitation, whereas stream discharge, vapor pressure deficit, and air temperature had negative or nonlinear effects. Wetland area change was primarily correlated with sea level, but response was highly contextual among sites. Negative trends in wetland NDVI and area were more common in larger sites with low elevations and in sites with open inlets. Restoration had mixed effects, with only half of the restored sites showing positive changes in NDVI and wetland area post‐restoration. The important work of managing and restoring urban coastal wetlands is complicated by variability and context and requires us to account for the influence of humans and climate as we build a regional understanding of historic, present, and future wetland health.

Rapid changes in the densely distributed lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) reflect the responses of terrestrial water resources to climate change. Timely and accurate monitoring of lake dynamics is essential for formulating adaptation strategies to manage water and protect public facility safety sustainably. Interfered by the numerous glaciers and snow mountains and limited by the acquisition and computing capacities of massive satellite data, annual inventories of all the lakes ranging from mini to large on the TP are still lacking. Here, we annually mapped these lake areas using all the Landsat imagery, a robust algorithm for detecting surface water according to multiple spectral indices, and Google Earth Engine. We further proposed an effective approach for accurately identifying the glaciers, snow, and mountain shadows in satellite imagery by introducing the characteristics of image luminosity and terrain slope, and removing their data noise remained in the lake maps to generate an annual precise dataset (Lake_TP) of the approximately 9,000 lakes over 0.1 km2 on the TP during 1991–2023. We revealed a rapid expansion of lakes with significant spatial heterogeneity, with 6,590 newly increased and 2,851 disappeared lakes found. The total lake areas (554.1 km2/yr) and numbers (77.9/yr) continuously and significantly increased in the period. The growth in lake numbers dominated by small lakes mainly happened before 2005, while the increases in lake areas dominated by large lakes lasted the whole period after 1995. The most significant increases in lake areas and numbers happened in the north of the Inner Basin and Yangtze, the hotspot of lake changes identified in the study. The dataset is expected to promote our understanding of the complete lake evolution process and the dynamic response of the cryosphere to the changing climate. The method proposed is also applicable to continuously monitoring the dynamics of lakes with higher accuracies in other alpine regions around the world. The Lake_TP dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10686952 (Zhou et al. 2024). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop-type mapping is essential for agricultural monitoring, improving crop yield models, and supporting sustainable land management. Studying crop phenology, which includes the timing from germination to maturity, is equally important for precise agricultural practices. However, maps detailing crop phenology are scarce. This study addresses this gap by mapping both crop types and cultivation time, offering valuable insights for agriculture applications. The research integrates Sentinel-1/2 data, NDVI phenology curves, and machine learning (ML) algorithms through Google Earth Engine to map crops in El-Behera Governorate, Egypt. By stratifying the region into different soil types, it accounts for various agro-environmental conditions. Field visits in July 2022 provided crop-type information, and Sentinel-2 NDVI curves were used to determine cultivation time. The random forest (RF) classifier, known for its accuracy, was employed, achieving an overall accuracy (OA) of 97.4% for crop type and 95.6% for cultivation time, with high Kappa coefficients. Feature importance analysis highlighted the significance of specific spectral bands, particularly in the Red Edge region, for classification accuracy. Hyperparameter tuning across different zones demonstrated the need for customized tuning. This study enhances understanding of agro-environmental variability’s impact on crop classification and shows the potential of the RF algorithm in advancing crop mapping, suggesting further studies on how shifts in cultivation time could affect crop yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major coal-producing area, the Shanxi section of the Yellow River Basin has been significantly affected by coal mining activities in the local ecological environment. Therefore, an in-depth study of the ecological evolution in this region holds great scientific significance and practical value. In this study, the Shanxi section of the Yellow River Basin, including its planned coal mining area, was selected as the research subject. An improved remotely sensed ecological index model (NRSEI) integrating the remotely sensed ecological index (RSEI) and net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation was constructed utilizing the Google Earth Engine platform. The NRSEI time series data from 2003 to 2022 were calculated, and the Sen + Mann–Kendall analysis method was employed to comprehensively assess the ecological environment quality and its evolutionary trends in the study area. The findings in this paper indicate the following data: (1) The contribution of the first principal component of the NRSEI model is more than 70%, and the average correlation coefficient is higher than 0.79. The model effectively integrates the information of multiple ecological indicators and enhances the applicability of regional ecological environment evaluation. (2) Between 2003 and 2022, the ecological environment quality in the Shanxi section of the Yellow River Basin showed an overall upward trend, with the average NRSEI value experiencing phases of fluctuation, increase, decline, and stabilization. The NRSEI values in non-coal mining areas consistently remained higher than those in coal mining areas. (3) Over 60% of the areas have improved ecological conditions, especially in coal mining areas. (4) The impact of coal mining on the ecological environment is significant within a 6 km radius, while the effects gradually diminish in the 6 to 10 km range. This study not only offers a reliable methodology for evaluating ecological environment quality on a large scale and over a long time series but also holds significant guiding value for the ecological restoration and sustainable development of the Shanxi section of the Yellow River Basin and its coal mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice cropping has been the great contribution to the water consumer and greenhouse gas emitter. It is of great significance to accurately monitor the water resources and rice cropping area for the food security under climate change. Among them, Yingjiang County is located in the central area of Yunnan Province, indicating the better representation of typical agriculture. However, the optical remote sensing cannot fully meet the accurate identification of some crops, due to the pixel heterogeneity, mixed pixels, and spectral similarity. Moreover, it is still lacking on the optical images for crop monitoring under the cloudy and rainy climates during the paddy rice growing period in tropical regions. Some difficulties are also remained to extract the rice using multi-spectral remote sensing. Current techniques are focused mainly on the optics and radar image fusion for mapping paddy rice. The applicability has been limited in the absence of optical images. The purpose of this study is to monitor the rice planting areas with frequent clouds and rain in the potential application of Sentinel-1 SAR data. Several features were extracted from the temporal curve of backscattering coefficient using SAR data in the entire growth period of rice. Multiple features were also extracted from the temporal changes of backscattering coefficient in the SAR images. The large-scale water rice maps were obtained to combine the new remote sensing index, named NDRI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The Sentinel-1 satellite was provided all-weather synthetic aperture radar imaging in the C-band. The Sentinel-1 SAR GRD dataset was accessed in the GEE cloud computing platform. Firstly, the SG filtering was used to smooth the temporal curves of backscattering coefficients in the different land covers. Then, the dynamic time warping distances among different temporal curves were calculated using rice samples as a reference. Meanwhile, two feature values were calculated to quantify the different characteristics of rice growth, including the difference between the minimum temporal curves and water bodies, and the difference between the maximum temporal curves and vegetation. Their multiplication was taken as the remote sensing index for the classification of rice threshold. Finally, the spatial distribution of rice was further corrected to generate the slope data from NASADEM images using overlay analysis. The effectiveness of the improved model was validated, taking Yingjiang County in Yunnan Province as the study area. The optical images were almost unusable during the period from June to September in the whole growing season of paddy rice, due to the extensive cloud cover. The results showed that: 1) The temporal SAR features of rice were accurately extracted with an overall accuracy of 89.42% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.82; 2) The planting area of rice in Yingjiang County in 2023 was 199.83km2, where the planting area along the Dayingjiang River was accounted for 90% of the total county. There was the significantly spatial aggregation of rice planting. This finding can provide the strong reference to accurately extract the spatial distribution of rice in the cloudy and rainy areas for the decision-making on agricultural policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its significance, net primary productivity is rarely used as an indicator of climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation net primary productivity and its response to climate variability in the Welmel watershed, southeastern Ethiopia. The investigation utilized data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations accessed through the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform. To evaluate the trend and response of net primary productivity to climatic factors, the Mann-Kendall and Theil Sen's tests, the Pearson correlation coefficient, and stability analysis through the coefficient of variation of net primary productivity were utilized. The analysis of the temporal trend of net primary productivity revealed that the entire watershed, forest, wood, and cultivated land areas exhibited decreasing trends with net primary productivity values of -0.681, -4.361, -1.41, and − 3.25 g C m− 2/year, respectively. On the other hand, shrubs and grazing land displayed increasing trends of 1.15 and 2.04 g C m− 2/year, respectively. The wood and shrubland trends were statistically significant (p < 0.05). In the spatial analysis, an area of 64.6% showed a decreasing trend, whereas 33.78% displayed an increasing trend in net primary productivity values. The areas with stable and unstable variations in net primary productivity accounted for 26.47% and 8.02%, respectively. The net primary productivity of the land cover types and entire watershed were positively correlated with rainfall, however, only forests and woodlands were statistically significantly correlated (p < 0.05). The net primary productivity and land surface temperature were negatively correlated, except for forests and cultivated land, which were positively correlated. The results of this study provide essential information for managing ecosystems, supporting agricultural practices, and enhancing community resilience in a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Albedo plays a key role in regulating the absorption of solar radiation within ice surfaces and hence strongly regulates the production of meltwater. A combination of Landsat and Sentinel 2 data provides the longest continuous medium resolution (10–30 m) earth surface observatory records. An albedo product (harmonized satellite albedo, hereafter HSA) has already been developed and validated for the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), using harmonized Landsat 4–8 and Sentinel 2 datasets. In this paper, the HSA was validated for various Arctic and alpine glaciers and ice caps using in situ measurements. We determine the optimal spatial window size in point-to-pixel analysis, the best practices in evaluating remote sensing algorithms with groundtruth data, and cross sensor comparison of the Landsat 9 (L9) and Landsat 8 (L8) data. The impact of the spatial window size on measured ice surface homogeneity and albedo validation was analysed at both local and regional scales. Homogeneity statistics calculated from the grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) suggest that the ice surface becomes more homogeneous as the image resolution becomes coarser. The optimal spatial window size was found to be 90 m, based on maximizing the statistical and graphical measures while minimizing the root mean square error and bias. HSAs generally agree closely with in situ albedo measurements (e.g. Pearson's R ranges from 0.68 to 0.92) across various Arctic and alpine glaciers and ice caps. Cross sensor differences between L9 and L8 are minor, and we suggest that no harmonization is necessary to add L9 to our HSA product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use and cover change (LUCC) is directly linked to the sustainability of ecosystems and the long-term well-being of human society. The Helong Region in the Loess Plateau has become one of the areas most severely affected by soil and water erosion in China due to its unique geographical location and ecological environment. The long-term construction of terraces and orchards is one of the important measures for this region to combat soil erosion. Despite the important role that terraces and orchards play in this region, current studies on their extraction and understanding remain limited. For this reason, this study designed a land use classification system, including terraces and orchards, to reveal the patterns of LUCC and the effectiveness of ecological restoration projects in the area. Based on this system, this study utilized the Random Forest classification algorithm to create an annual land use and cover (LUC) dataset for the Helong Region that covers eight periods from 1986 to 2020, with a spatial resolution of 30 m. The validation results showed that the maps achieved an average overall accuracy of 87.54% and an average Kappa coefficient of 76.94%. This demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed design and land coverage mapping method in the study area. This study found that, from 1986 to 2020, there was a continuous increase in forest and grassland areas, a significant reduction in cropland and bare land areas, and a notable rise in impervious surface areas. We emphasized that the continuous growth of terraces and orchards was an important LUCC trend in the region. This growth was primarily attributed to the conversion of grasslands, croplands, and forests. This transformation not only reduced soil erosion but also enhanced economic efficiency. The products and insights provided in this study help us better understand the complexities of ecological recovery and land management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities have both positive and negative impacts on forests, altering the extent and composition of various forest vegetation types, and increasing uncertainty in ecological management. A detailed understanding of the historical distribution of forest vegetation is crucial for local conservation efforts. In this study, we integrated phenological features with climatic and terrain variables to enhance the mapping accuracy of forest vegetation in Yunnan. We mapped the historical distributions of five forest vegetation type groups and nine specific forest vegetation types for 2001, 2010, and 2020. Our findings revealed that: (1) rubber plantations can be effectively distinguished from other forest vegetation using phenological features, coniferous forests and broad-leaved forests can be differentiated using visible spectral bands, and environmental variables (temperature, precipitation, and elevation) are effective in differentiating forest vegetation types under varying climate conditions; (2) the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient increased by 14.845% and 20.432%, respectively, when climatic variables were combined with phenological features, and by 13.613% and 18.902%, respectively, when elevation was combined with phenological features, compared to using phenological features alone; (3) forest cover in Yunnan increased by 2.069 × 104 km2 (10.369%) between 2001 and 2020. This study highlights the critical role of environmental variables in improving the mapping accuracy of forest vegetation in mountainous regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tidal flats, a critical part of coastal wetlands, offer unique ecosystem services and functions. However, in China, these areas are under significant threat from industrialization, urbanization, aquaculture expansion, and coastline reconstruction. There is an urgent need for macroscopic, accurate and periodic tidal flat resource data to support the scientific management and development of coastal resources. At present, the lack of macroscopic, accurate and periodic high-resolution tidal flat maps in China greatly limits the spatio-temporal analysis of the dynamic changes of tidal flats in China, and is insufficient to support practical management efforts. In this study, we used the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to construct multi-source intensive time series remote sensing image collection from Sentinel-2 (MSI), Landsat 8 (OLI) and Landsat 9 (OLI-2) images, and then automated the execution of improved MSIC-OA (Maximum Spectral Index Composite and Otsu Algorithm) to process the collection, and then extracted and analyzed the tidal flat data of China in 2018 and 2023. The results are as follows: (1) the overall classification accuracy of the tidal flat in 2023 is 95.19%, with an F1 score of 0.92. In 2018, these values are 92.77% and 0.88, respectively. (2) The total tidal flat area in 2018 and 2023 is 8300.34 km2 and 8151.54 km2, respectively, showing a decrease of 148.80 km2. (3) In 2023, estuarine and bay tidal flats account for 54.88% of the total area, with most tidal flats distribute near river inlets and bays. (4) In 2023, the total length of the coastline adjacent to the tidal flat is 10,196.17 km, of which the artificial shoreline accounts for 67.06%. The development degree of the tidal flat is 2.04, indicating that the majority of tidal flats have been developed and utilized. The results can provide a valuable data reference for the protection and scientific planning of tidal flat resources in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snow cover is a relevant component of the Earth's climate system, influencing water supply, ecosystem health, and natural hazard management. This study aims to monitor daily snow cover in the Cantabrian Mountains using Sentinel-2, Landsat (5–8), and MODIS data processed in Google Earth Engine (GEE). The main purpose is to extract metrics on snow cover extent, duration, frequency, and trends. Key findings reveal significant spatial and temporal variability in Snow-Cover Days (SCDs) across the region. Over the past 23 years, there has been a notable overall decrease in snow-cover days (−0.26 days per year, and −0.92 days per year in areas with a significant trend). Altitudes between 1000–2000 m a.s.l. showed marked decreases. The analysis of Snow-Cover Fraction (SCF) indicates high interannual variability and records the highest values at the end of January and the beginning of February. The effectiveness of satellite data and GEE is highlighted in providing detailed, long-term snow cover analysis, despite some limitations in steep slopes, forests, and prolonged cloud-cover areas. These results underscore the capacity for continuous monitoring with satellite imagery, especially in areas with sparse snow observation networks, where studies could be enhanced with more localized studies or additional ground-based observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to economic and environmental challenges like sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, groundwater extraction, sand mining, and sinking delta phenomena, the demand for solutions to adapt to changing conditions in riverine environments has increased significantly. High-quality analyses of land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics play a critical role in addressing these challenges. This study introduces a novel high-spatial resolution satellite-based approach to identify sub-seasonal LULC dynamics in the Mekong River Delta (MRD), employing a three-year (2021–2023) Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite data time series. The primary obstacle is discerning detailed vegetation dynamics, particularly the seasonality of rice crops, answered through quantile mapping, harmonic regression with Fourier transform, and phenological metrics as inputs to a random forest machine learning classifier. Due to the substantial data volume, Google's cloud computing platform Earth Engine was utilized for the analysis. Furthermore, the study evaluated the relative significance of various input features. The overall accuracy of the classification is 82.6% with a kappa statistic of 0.81, determined using comprehensive reference data collected in Vietnam. While the purely pixel-based approach has limitations, it proves to be a viable method for high-spatial resolution satellite image time series classification of the MRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, is one of the few biological water quality indices detectable using satellite observations. However, models for estimating Chl-a from satellite signals are currently unavailable for many lakes. The application of Chl-a prediction algorithms may be affected by the variance in optical complexity within lakes. Using Lake Winnipeg in Canada as a case study, we demonstrated that separating models by the lake's basins [north basin (NB) and south basin (SB)] can improve Chl-a predictions. By calibrating more than 40 commonly used Chl-a estimation models using Landsat data for Lake Winnipeg, we achieved higher correlations between in situ and predicted Chl-a when building models with separate Landsat-to-in situ matchups from NB and SB (R2 = 0.85 and 0.76, respectively; p < 0.05), compared to using matchups from the entire lake (R2 = 0.38, p < 0.05). In the deeper, more transparent waters of the NB, a green-to-blue band ratio provided better Chl-a predictions, while in the shallower, highly turbid SB, a red-to-green band ratio was more effective. Our approach can be used for rapid Chl-a modeling in large lakes using cloud-based platforms like Google Earth Engine with any available satellite or time series length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland degradation has been accelerating in recent years globally. Accurate information on the geographic distribution and categories of wetlands is essential for their conservation and management. Despite being the world's fourth largest continent, South America has limited research on wetland mapping, and there is currently no available map that provides comprehensive information on wetland distribution and categories in the region. To address this issue, we used Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and SRTM data, developed a sample collection method and a wetland mapping method with a collection of multi-source features such as optical features, polarization features and shape features for South American wetlands. We produced a 10-m resolution wetland map based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our Level-1 wetland cover map accurately captured six wetland sub-categories with an overall accuracy of 96.24% and a kappa coefficient of 0.8649, while our Level-2 water cover map included five sub-categories with an overall accuracy of 97.23% and a kappa coefficient of 0.9368. The results show that the total area of existing wetlands in South America is approximately 1,737,000 km2, which is 6.8% of the total land area. Among the ten wetland categories, shallow sea had the largest area (960,527.4 km2), while aquaculture ponds had the smallest area 1513.6 km2. Swamp had the second largest area (306,240.1 km2). Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Colombia were found to have the largest wetland areas, with Brazil and Colombia having the most diverse wetland categories. This product can serve as baseline data for subsequent monitoring, management, and conservation of South American wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves and droughts) have caused widespread adverse impacts across regions and sectors, including shrimp farming. However, the availability of in situ water temperature data typically only represents a small portion of shrimp farms' thermal profiles, and this often leads to limitations in investigating the impacts of global warming and climate change on shrimp farming. For this aim, satellite-derived water surface temperature (WST) at shrimp farms in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, was investigated by using Landsat data in the Google Earth Engine. Results showed that satellite-derived WST at shrimp farms in Mong Cai City ranged from 11.5 °C to 37.6 °C in 2000–2003, mainly concentrated at 15–35 °C (around 95% retrieved WST from Landsat data). There was a seasonal variation of WST at shrimp farms, with monthly mean WST ranged from 18.4 °C (January) to 29.9 °C (July). The mean annual WST at shrimp farms in Mong Cai City showed an increasing trend from 2000 to 2022. A remarkable warming trend of WST was detected during the shrimp-growing season (from April to October), and this may lead to a high risk for shrimp health. The findings of this study indicated that greater awareness of water temperature monitoring at shrimp farms is required if this activity is to be sustainable in the climate change context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study area is Karabük province, and the research topic is to examine the influence of soil-related variables on soil organic carbon in Karabük province. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between digital soil mapping and the correlation analysis of soil variables that affect the carbon stock stored by the soil. In the study, data from SoilGrids was gathered using Google Earth Engine (GEE) machine learning methods. The JavaScript coding language was used to generate maps of SoilGrids data in GEE. These spatial data were processed using Geographic Information Systems software, and multiple linear regression analysis was performed using the "IBM SPSS 20.0″ program. Clay, sand, silt, pH (in water), organic carbon density, mass density, coarse fractions, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and nitrogen were considered as soil variables. According to the results obtained, the pH of the surface soils (0–5 cm) of the study area was 58–7: clay g/kg; 104–400 g/kg; sand; 214–460; silt; 331–510 g/kg; organic carbon density: 380–562 dg/dm3; nitrogen density: 2 920–7 683 cg/kg; mass density: 93.00–136.00 g/kg; coarse particles: 55–239 (Per10000); CEC: 215–348 mmol/kg; and SOC values varied between 286–374 dg/kg. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock amounts varied between 286 and 374 dg/kg in surface (0–5 cm) soils. As a consequence of the studies, it was revealed that nitrogen had the strongest link with SOC, whereas clay had the lowest relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing has demonstrated validity in determining the planting year of deciduous fruit trees; however, its effectiveness in ascertaining the planting year of evergreen fruit trees remains unverified. Furthermore, the sources of error associated with using remote sensing to determine the planting year of fruit trees remain unclear. This study investigates several cultivated sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) varieties, which are extensively cultivated throughout subtropical China. We analyzed Landsat time series data from 132 navel orange orchards in Gannan, covering the period from 1993 to 2021. For each orchard, Google Earth Engine was employed to extract three vegetation indices—Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR)—for each available date, thereby generating three distinct vegetation index time series. The planting year of navel orange trees was identified based on abrupt changes observed in these time series. The principal sources of error in determining the planting year were investigated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Spearman's correlation analysis, and Kruskal-Wallis H test. Key findings include: (1) Following the planting of navel orange trees, EVI, NDVI, and NBR exhibited fluctuations and a gradual increase over time, peaking approximately 10 to 15 years later. (2) The vegetation index time series derived from Landsat imagery effectively determined the planting year of evergreen navel orange trees in orchards, even within highly fragmented landscapes. Among these indices, NDVI and NBR time series outperformed the EVI time series. Specifically, the average determination errors for EVI, NDVI, and NBR time series were 6.4, 1.8, and 2.8 years, respectively. (3) Major sources of error included the methods used to construct the time series, the selection of vegetation indices, and the orchard management practices. Overall, this study provides a viable method for determining the planting year of evergreen navel orange trees in fragmented landscapes and offers insights into factors contributing to uncertainty in planting year determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation greenness has been one of the most widely utilized indicators to assess the vegetation growth status for the better ecological environment. However, in typical tourist regions, the impact of the geographical environment, socioeconomic development, and tourism development on vegetation greenness changes is still a challenge. To address this challenge, we used the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform combined with a series of Landsat remote sensing images to calculate the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) which can be used as an indicator to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of vegetation greenness in Hainan Island from 2000 to 2020. Furthermore, we employed geographic detector and structural equation models to quantify the relative importance and explanatory power of the geographical environment, socioeconomic development, and tourism development on vegetation greenness changes and to clarify the interaction of mechanisms of various factors in Haikou and Sanya. The results show that the annual growth rate of the FVC in Hainan Island was 0.0025/a. In terms of spatial distribution, the trend of the FVC changes was mainly characterized by non-significant and extremely significant improvement, accounting for 35.34% and 29.38% of the study area. Future vegetation greenness was dominated by weak counter-persistent increase and weak persistent increase. The geographical environmental factors were the main factors affecting vegetation greenness in Haikou, followed by the socioeconomic and the tourism development factors, while the geographical environmental factors also dominate in Sanya, followed by the tourism development factors and finally the socioeconomic factors. Specifically, the spatial distribution of vegetation greenness was primarily influenced by land use types, elevation, slope, and travel services. Geographical environmental factors could indirectly affect changes in socioeconomic and tourism development, thereby indirectly affecting the spatial distribution of vegetation greenness. These findings can provide some significant implications to guide the ecological environmental protection for sustainable development in Hainan Island in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant challenges facing developing countries is combating air pollution and improving air quality. Therefore, analyzing changes in air pollutants can provide valuable information for experts to analyze air quality. The TROPOMI sensor on the Sentinel-5 satellite enables the tracking of gaseous pollutants. In this study, using GEE (Google Earth Engine), the products of CO, O3, NO2, and SO2 pollutants were retrieved, and their average concentrations were mapped at the spatial scale of Razavi and South Khorasan provinces in the period 2018-2023. Additionally, the inverse distance weighting (IDW) method was used for annual data from five air quality monitoring stations. The results of this research showed that the spatial distribution of the concentration of these pollutants increased from Razavi and South Khorasan provinces, with the highest values recorded in the north, northeast, and center of Khorasan Razavi province. Also, the spatial distribution of the concentration of measured pollutants using the IDW model showed that the highest concentration dispersion of pollutants was recorded at the Mashin Abzar, Khiam, Sajad, and Tarog stations. To investigate the overall ability of the TRPOPMI sensor to estimate atmospheric pollutants, the coefficient of determination (R²) was used. The results showed that the monitoring values using Sentinel-5 satellite images correlate at least 0.76% for CO, 0.85% for O3, 0.79% for NO2, and 0.78% for SO2 with the values monitored by air quality monitoring stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its crucial role in flood defense for downstream regions, the catastrophic breach of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6, 2023, along the Dnipro River in Ukraine caused extensive flooding and damage both upstream and downstream. In addition, the subsequent significant drying up of the dam reservoir poses serious challenges, including hindered electricity generation, compromised flood control measures, and disrupted aquatic ecosystems. This study aims to address knowledge gaps related to the event by employing multi-temporal change detection of pre- and post-event Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, analyzed using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, to map flood extent and impacts. Furthermore, we assessed the impacts of dam breaches on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential in both the drying reservoir region upstream and the flooded areas downstream. The results estimated the total area of the flood extent to be approximately 379.41 km2, with an overall accuracy (OA) of 94% and a Kappa index (K) of 0.89. Quantitative analysis revealed that 81.15 km2 of urban areas, 82.59 km2 of agricultural lands, and 215.56 km2 of herbaceous wetlands were submerged by floodwaters. Both flooding and reservoir drawdown from dam collapses can significantly affect soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rates in affected soils. The quantification of post-disaster impacts underscores the pressing need for restoration practices and sustainable management efforts to lessen the environmental impacts and enhance the recovery of the affected regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jilin Province is a crucial region of interest for agricultural and forestry development in China. The deterioration of its ecological environment could have a severe impact on agricultural production and ecological conservation. A systematic assessment of ecological environment quality in Jilin Province is essential for its sustainable development. In this study, we utilized Landsat data from 1990 to 2020 (every 5 years) to construct the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) for Jilin Province. We applied the Sen's slope estimator and the Mann-Kendall trend test to examine the spatiotemporal changes in ecological environment quality over a 30-year period. Additionally, we employed the Geo-detector to explore the socioeconomic and natural factors influencing ecological environment quality. The results revealed: 1) From 1990 to 2020, the average RSEI index in Jilin Province ranged from 0.586 to 0.699, indicating overall good ecological environment quality. Spatially, ecological environment quality gradually declined from east to west. 2) The RSEI in Jilin Province exhibited an initial increase, followed by a decrease, and then another increase trend. This improvement can be attributed to the implementation of government policies, which reversed the expansion of saline-alkali land. Ecological environment quality significantly improved in the western region of Jilin Province over the 30-year period. 3) Socioeconomic and natural factors both influence ecological environment quality in Jilin Province. Among these factors, vegetation coverage has the most significant impact on the ecological environment quality in the study area, with natural factors exerting a more significant influence than socioeconomic factors. Our research can provide relevant data support for policy-making in Jilin Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractProjecting global urban expansion is crucial for environmental assessment under climate change scenarios. However, existing global future urban land products are typically provided at coarse resolutions (1 km) due to data and computing limitations. This hinders the accurate assessment of the impacts of global urban development at finer scales. Thus, we develop the first Cellular Automata (CA) online tool for simulating future global urban expansion in Google Earth Engine (GEE-CA), which can simulate future urban land change at a 30 m resolution under different SSP scenarios. GEE-CA enables seamless simulations of future urban land at high resolution through a partitioned parallel strategy. Seven large urban agglomerations are simulated under shared socioeconomic pathways as representative regions to present our fine-scale results. Comparatively, our datasets preserve significantly more spatial details than existing global urban land products. The improvement in resolution from 1 km to 30 m reduces errors by a range from 7.11% to 21.27% in the estimation of future urban area. So far, the proposed GEE-CA tool allows users to generate urban land projection maps for any defined region with a resolution as high as 30 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme meteorological events hit our planet with increasing frequency, resulting in an ever-increasing number of natural disasters. Flash floods generated by intense and violent rains are among the most dangerous natural disasters that compromise crops and cause serious damage to infrastructure and human lives. In the case of such a kind of disastrous events, timely and accurate information about the location and extent of the affected areas can be crucial to better plan and implement recovery and containment interventions. Satellite systems may efficiently provide such information at different spatial/temporal resolutions. Several authors have developed satellite techniques to detect and map inundated areas using both Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and a new generation of high-resolution optical data but with some accuracy limits, mostly due to the use of fixed thresholds to discriminate between the inundated and unaffected areas. In this paper, the RST-FLOOD fully automatic technique, which does not suffer from the aforementioned limitation, has been exported for the first time to the mid–high-spatial resolution (20 m) optical data provided by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI). The technique was originally designed for and successfully applied to Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite data at a mid–low spatial resolution (from 1000 to 375 m). The processing chain was implemented in a completely automatic mode within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to study the recent strong flood event that occurred in May 2023 in Emilia Romagna (Italy). The outgoing results were compared with those obtained through the implementation of an existing independent optical-based technique and the products provided by the official Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), which is responsible for releasing information during crisis events. The comparisons carried out show that RST-FLOOD is a simple implementation technique able to retrieve more sensitive and effective information than the other optical-based methodology analyzed here and with an accuracy better than the one offered by the CEMS products with a significantly reduced delivery time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought monitoring is a critical environmental challenge, particularly in regions where irrigated agricultural intensification and urban expansion pressure water resources. This study assesses the impact of these activities on drought dynamics in Morocco's Oum Er-Rbia (OER) watershed from 2002 to 2022, using the newly developed Watershed Integrated Multi-Drought Index (WIMDI), through Google Earth Engine (GEE). WIMDI integrates several drought indices, including SMCI, ESI, VCI, TVDI, SWI, PCI, and SVI, via a localized weighted averaging model (LOWA). Statistical validation against various drought-type indices including SPI, SDI, SEDI, and SMCI showed WIMDI's strong correlations (r-values up to 0.805) and lower RMSE, indicating superior accuracy. Spatiotemporal validation against aggregated drought indices such as VHI, VDSI, and SDCI, along with time-series analysis, confirmed WIMDI's robustness in capturing drought variability across the OER watershed. These results highlight WIMDI's potential as a reliable tool for effective drought monitoring and management across diverse ecosystems and climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial node in the East Asia–Australasia migratory bird network, the Liaohe River Estuary Wetland (LREW) contributes significantly to coastal ecological balance and biodiversity. Accurate and timely mapping of the LREW is essential for monitoring ecological changes and understanding shifts in the wetland's ecosystem structure and functions. In this study, an innovative approach that integrates radar (Sentinel-1), optical (Sentinel-2), and DEM data on Google Earth Engine (GEE) is proposed to achieve a more optimized and accurate wetland mapping. Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) is employed to improve feature collection, facilitating the construction of an optimal feature set for Random Forest (RF) classification to extract detailed LREW information. Mapping conducted from 2017 to 2023 using the proposed approach demonstrates its effectiveness and stability in mapping the LREW, achieving overall accuracies ranging from 89.84% to 93.73% and Kappa from 0.85 to 0.91. Compared to single-source methods, the integration of multi-source data substantially enhances mapping accuracy, while RF-RFE effectively eliminates redundant features, further refining classification precision. Texture features (Sum Average, SAVG) and the Water Index 2019 (WI2019) were found to significantly influence wetland mapping. The importance of different feature types is ranked as follows: spectral features > vegetation/water body index > PCA features > SAR texture features > red-edge index > other spectral index > spectral texture features > backscatter coefficient > H-Alpha. During the study period, the wetland area increased from 849.60 km2 to 979.49 km2. This expansion was caused primarily by wetland protection policies that led to the dismantling of coastal aquaculture ponds, resulting in a reduction of 90.28 km2 in waterbodies over 7 years, with many areas transitioning to tidal flats and Suaeda salsa habitats. In conclusion, the proposed method is effective in mapping the LRE wetlands and provides reliable data support for wetland ecological protection and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Channel sandbars are extremely sensitive to basin‐wide natural processes and human activities, and their modifications considerably affect channel stability and river ecosystem health. However, quantitatively detecting the three‐dimensional dynamics of channel sandbars at a high spatial resolution over a large area remains challenging. In this study, we propose a semi‐automated process to address this challenge by extracting sandbar contours from Sentinel‐2 images in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. We then generate contour datasets for each sandbar based on the spatial relationship between contours and water levels at nearby hydrological stations. Subsequently, digital elevation models (DEMs) are created for each sandbar using the contour dataset, and non‐linear relations between sandbar areas and water levels are fitted through polynomial curves of degrees 3–6 to calculate changes in sandbar volumes. Finally, we comprehensively analysed the driving mechanisms of sandbar changes in different sub‐reaches. Our findings reveal the area and volume of sandbars in three of the four sub‐reaches increased significantly between 2018 and 2019; however, these values decreased significantly and continuously between 2019 and 2022. Sandbars located downstream near the dam experienced more severe erosion compared to those farther downstream. Although the morphodynamic processes of each sub‐reach were different, extremely low rainfall in 2019–2020 and the operation of the Xayaburi Dam are significant global factors leading to the shrinkage of the sandbars. Furthermore, abnormal erosion with a change rate of −9.62% in area and −8.95% in volume was observed in the sub‐reach between Vientiane and Khong Chiam hydrological stations between 2018 and 2019, with the susceptibility of the channel to flow scour and anthropogenic sand mining being significant factors. Although the sediment replenishment from tributaries diminishes the impact of upstream dams and droughts on the reach farther downstream, the threat to channel stability due to excessive sand mining should be given high priority. Our study highlights how satellite remote sensing, specifically utilizing time series images with fine spatio‐temporal resolutions, effectively detects three‐dimensional variations in sandbars and river geomorphic changes. Additionally, it demonstrates the significant post‐dam alteration of erosion patterns and deposition dynamics within the sandbar region of the lower Mekong River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic constitutes a significant small-scale agricultural commodity in China. A key factor influencing garlic prices is the planted area, which can be accurately and efficiently determined using remote sensing technology. However, the spectral characteristics of garlic and winter wheat are easily confused, and the widespread intercropping of these crops in the study area exacerbates this issue, leading to significant challenges in remote sensing image analysis. Additionally, remote sensing data are often affected by weather conditions, spatial resolution, and revisit frequency, which can result in delayed and inaccurate area extraction. In this study, historical data were utilized to restore Sentinel-2 remote sensing images, aimed at mitigating cloud and rain interference. Feature combinations were devised, incorporating two vegetation indices into a comprehensive time series, along with Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time series and other temporal datasets. Multiple classification combinations were employed to extract garlic within the study area, and the accuracy of the classification results was systematically analyzed. First, we used passive satellite imagery to extract winter crops (garlic, winter wheat, and others) with high accuracy. Second, we identified garlic by applying various combinations of time series features derived from both active and passive remote sensing data. Third, we evaluated the classification outcomes of various feature combinations to generate an optimal garlic cultivation distribution map for each region. Fourth, we developed a garlic fragmentation index to assess the impact of landscape fragmentation on garlic extraction accuracy. The findings reveal that: (1) Better results in garlic extraction can be achieved using active–passive time series remote sensing. The performance of the classification model can be further enhanced by incorporating short-wave infrared bands or spliced time series data into the classification features. (2) Examination of garlic cultivation fragmentation using the garlic fragmentation index aids in elucidating variations in accuracy across the study area's six counties. (3) Comparative analysis with validation samples demonstrated superior garlic extraction outcomes from the six primary garlic-producing counties of the North China Plain in 2021, achieving an overall precision exceeding 90%. This study offers a practical exploration of target crop identification using multi-source remote sensing data in mixed cropping areas. The methodology presented here demonstrates the potential for efficient, cost-effective, and accurate garlic classification, which is crucial for improving garlic production management and optimizing agricultural practices. Moreover, this approach holds promise for broader applications, such as nationwide garlic mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's accelerating pace of urbanization has placed severe pressure on its ecosystems. Hence, the monitoring and assessment of eco-environmental quality has significant implications for sustainable urban development. By introducing a pollution index, a modified remote sensing ecological index (MRSEI) was constructed to more comprehensively evaluate the spatiotemporal distribution of the eco-environment quality in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River where urbanization has been developing rapidly. Future trends in eco-environmental quality were analyzed using Theil–Sen trend analysis, the Mann–Kendall test, and the Hurst exponent. Environmental influencing factors were also analyzed. Our results show that: (1) The impact of pollution factors on urban agglomerations cannot be overlooked. The MRSEI model introduces a pollution indicator to better assess the eco-environmental quality of urban agglomeration areas. (2) The eco-environmental quality is high in the south and east and low in the north and west, with overall levels ranging between moderate and good. (3) The eco-environmental quality remained stable, improved, and degraded in 86.3%, 3.1%, and 10.7% of the study area, respectively. (4) The land use and land cover type are directly related to the eco-environment. Climate factors indirectly affect the eco-environment. Human activities in cities and urban peripheries lead to land use changes and industrial pollution, which significantly affect environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomerations significantly alter the regional thermal environment. It is urgent to investigate the evolution and influence mechanisms of urban agglomeration heat island intensity from a regional perspective. This study is supported by Google Earth Engine long-term MODIS data series. On the basis of estimating surface urban heat island intensity (SUHI) in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2001 to 2020 based on the suburban temperature difference method, the causes of heat islands in the urban agglomeration were analyzed by using geographical detector analysis. Additionally, the heat island proportion (PHI) and SUHI indicators were used to compare and analyze the changing characteristics of the urban heat island effect of ten representative cities. The research reveals the following: (1) The average SUHI of the study area increased from 0.11 °C in 2001 to 0.29 °C in 2020, with an average annual increase rate of 0.009 °C. (2) According to the results of the geographical detector analysis, SUHI was influenced by several driving factors exhibiting obvious seasonal variations. (3) SUHI difference between cities is significant in the summer (1.52 °C), but smallest in the winter; the PHI difference between cities is larger in the autumn (46.7%), while it is smaller in the summer. The research findings aim to effectively serve the formulation of collaborative development plans for the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the identification of burned areas and post fire vegetation restoration in the Daxing′an Mountains region, based on Landsat TM remote sensing images from 2006 to 2020, Google Earth Engine was used to write code. The research background was the 2006 forest fire in the Nayuan Forest Farm in the Songling District of the Daxing′an Mountains region. The differential normalized burned ratio (dNBR) data was used to identify the burned areas, and the severity was classified into mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe levels. Based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) values of burned areas, methods such as univariate linear regression analysis, Mann-Kendall mutation test for climate diagnosis and Theil-Sen media trend analysis for treud analysis were used to analyze the vegetation restoration characteristics of burned areas from 2006 to 2020, and to explore the process of vegetation restoration in the Daxing′an Mountains region. The results showed that, 1) Based on dNBR, the burned areas in the study area was 2 488. 7 hm2, with 23. 5%, 9. 6%, 35. 2%, and 31. 7% of the areas affected by mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe fires, respectively. Severe and extremely severe areas of excessive fire were distributed in the western and eastern parts of the burned area, and the severity of excessive fire gradually decreased from the central to the southern and northern parts. The EVI values decreased by about 30%, 40%, 58%, and 67% compared to before the fire, respectively. 2) The recovery rate of EVI in forest burned areas with different intensities showed extremely severe, severe, moderate, mild. During the vegetation restoration process, the EVI value of the burned areas gradually increased. Mild and moderate burned areas can recover 6-8 years after the fire, while the recovery of severely burned areas required 14 years. 3) During the restoration process of burned areas, there were fewer EVI mutation points in forested areas compared to grasslands, indicating stronger stability of forest ecosystems compared to irrigated grasslands. There were also certain differences in the mutation situation of forest burning sites with different intensities, and the mutation time point in the control area lagged behind the burning sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil nutrient content varies spatially across agricultural fields in hard-to-predict ways, particularly in floodplains with complex fluvial depositional history. Satellite reflectance data from the Sentinel-2 (S2) mission provides spatially continuous land reflectance data that can aid model development when used with point observations of nutrients. Reflectance from vegetation is assumed to obstruct land reflectance of bare soil, such that researchers have masked vegetation in models. We developed a routine for masking vegetation within Google Earth Engine (GEE) using Random Forest classification for iterative application to libraries of S2-images. Using gradient boosting, we then developed soil nutrient models for surface soils at a 250-ha agricultural site using S2 images. Soils were sampled at 2145 point locations to a 23-cm depth and analyzed for Ca, K, Mg, P, pH, S, and Zn. Results showed that masking vegetation improved model performance for models from subsets of the data (80% of samples used for model development, 20% validation), but full data sets did not require masking to achieve accuracy. Models of Ca, K, Mg, and S were successful (validation R2 > 0.60 to 0.96), but models for pH, P, and Zn failed. Bare soil composite images from S2 data are helpful in predicting soil fertility in low-relief floodplains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the water and carbon cycles within terrestrial ecosystems is crucial for effective monitoring and management of regional water resources and the ecological environment. However, physical models like the SEB- and LUE-based ones can be complex and demand extensive input data. In our study, we leveraged multiple variables (vegetation growth, surface moisture, radiative energy, and other relative variables) as inputs for various regression algorithms, including Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Random Forest Regression (RFR), and Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN), to estimate water (ET) and carbon fluxes (NEE) in the Haihe River Basin, and compared the estimated results with the observations from six eddy covariance flux towers. We aimed to (1) assess the impacts of different input variables on the accuracy of ET and NEE estimations, (2) compare the accuracy of the three regression methods, including three machine learning algorithms and Multiple Linear Regression, and (3) evaluate the performance of ET and NEE estimation models across various regions. The key findings include: (1) Increasing the number of input variables typically improved the accuracy of ET and NEE estimations. (2) RFR proved to be the most accurate for both ET and NEE estimations among the three regression algorithms. Of these, the four types of variables used together with RFR resulted in the best accuracy for ET (R2 of 0.81 and an RMSE of 1.13 mm) and NEE (R2 of 0.83 and an RMSE of 2.83 gC/m2) estimations. (3) Vegetation growth variables (i.e., VIs) are the most important inputs for ET and NEE estimation. (4) The proposed ET and NEE estimation models exhibited some variation in accuracy across different validation sites. Despite these variations, the accuracy levels across all six validation sites remained relatively high. Overall, this study lays the groundwork for an efficient approach to agricultural water resources and ecosystem monitoring and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Resources & Ecology is the property of Journal of Resources & Ecology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has made several environmental impacts, resulting in the significant siltation of water bodies due to the deposition of sediments on riverbanks. Based on this perspective, this study aims to investigate the water bodies and regions most impacted by mining activities, especially in relation to the increase in the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) caused by ASGM, focusing on the territories of Suriname and French Guiana, over the period from 2017 to 2023, through the creation of an algorithm in Google Earth Engine. This research also aims to map and describe active mining in this region using the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) method, which achieved an overall accuracy of 82% and a kappa index of 0.77. The results reveal that from 2017 to 2024, there was an increase of 148.09 km2 in mining, with an average increase in TSS of up to 167 mg/L in water bodies most affected by mining activities. Finally, the continued importance of using remote sensing technologies, such as GEE, together with innovative methodological approaches, to monitor and manage natural resources in a sustainable manner is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a remote sensing approach for rapidly and automatically generating maps of surface disturbances caused by landslides on the global scale. Our approach not only identifies the locations of these disturbances but also pinpoints the estimated time of their occurrence. Using the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) algorithm within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we analyzed two decades of Landsat 5, 7, and 8 surface reflectance data. We tested this approach in five landslide-prone regions: Iburi (Japan), Kashmir (Pakistan), Karnataka (India), Porgera (Papua New Guinea), and Pasang Lhamu (Nepal). The results were promising, with R2 values ranging up to 0.85, indicating a robust correlation between detected disturbances and actual landslide events compared to manually made inventories. The accuracy metrics further validated our method, with a producer's accuracy of 75%, a user's accuracy of 73%, and an F1 score of 75%. Furthermore, the method proved well transferable across different locations. These findings demonstrate the method's potential as a valuable tool for near real-time and historical analysis of landslide activity, thereby contributing to global disaster management and mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecotone zone, located between the Cerrado and Amazon biomes, has been under intensive anthropogenic pressures due to the expansion of commodity agriculture and extensive cattle ranching. This has led to habitat loss, reducing biodiversity, depleting biomass, and increasing CO2 emissions. In this study, we employed an artificial neural network, field data, and remote sensing techniques to develop a model for estimating biomass in the remaining native vegetation within an 18,864 km2 ecotone region between the Amazon and Cerrado biomes in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We utilized field data from a plant ecology laboratory and vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and trained artificial neural networks to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB) in the study area. The optimal network was chosen based on graphical analysis, mean estimation errors, and correlation coefficients. We validated our chosen network using both a Student's t-test and the aggregated difference. Our results using an artificial neural network, in combination with vegetation indices such as AFRI (Aerosol Free Vegetation Index), EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index), and GNDVI (Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), which show an accurate estimation of aboveground forest biomass (Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 15.92%), can bolster efforts to assess biomass and carbon stocks. Our study results can support the definition of environmental conservation priorities and help set parameters for payment for ecosystem services in environmentally sensitive tropical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research proposes an optimized method for identifying high-quality vegetation areas, with a focus on forest ecosystems, using an improved Vegetation Health Index (VHI). The study introduces the Land Cover Vegetation Health Index (LCVHI), which integrates the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) with land cover data. Utilizing MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite imagery and Google Earth Engine (GEE), the study assesses the impact of land cover changes on vegetation health, with particular attention to forested areas. The application of the LCVHI demonstrates that forests exhibit a VHI approximately 25% higher than that of croplands, and wetlands show an 18% higher index compared to grasslands. Analysis of data from 2012 to 2022 in Hubei Province, China, reveals an overall upward trend in vegetation health, highlighting the effectiveness of environmental protection and forest management measures. Different land cover types, including forests, wetlands, and grasslands, significantly impact vegetation health, with forests and wetlands contributing most positively. These findings provide important scientific evidence for regional and global ecological management strategies, supporting the development of forest conservation policies and sustainable land use practices. The research results offer valuable insights into the effective management of regional ecological dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest disturbance mapping plays an important role in furthering our understanding of forest dynamics. The Landsat-based detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) algorithm is widely used in forest disturbance mapping. However, it neglects the quality of the temporal trajectory and its change trends for forest disturbance mapping. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to improve LandTrendr (iLandTrendr) for forest disturbance mapping by optimizing its temporal trajectories and the post-processing of detection results. Specifically, the temporal trajectory of complex forest disturbance types was optimized using the Savitzky–Golay (SG) filter with constraints. That is, the smooth value generated from the SG filter for the disturbance year was replaced by the satellite observations when the nonlinear abrupt signals were included in the multi-temporal data. The forest disturbance detected by LandTrendr was further modified using the consistency of spectral variation trends. A case study using iLandTrendr to detect forest disturbance in Yunnan Province was conducted. Compared to the LandTrendr method, which has an overall accuracy (OA) of 35.88%, iLandTrendr generated forest disturbance mapping with an OA of 89.32%, which was significantly higher. The total mapped area of disturbance was 1,985,820.9 km2, accounting for 49.69% of the total area. The disturbances were predominately caused by natural factors, such as wildfires, pests and diseases, and forest degradation, accounting for 85.31% of the total disturbed area. iLandTrendr can quickly and accurately detect the occurrence year of complex forest disturbance types and can be extended for the forest disturbance mapping of a large area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dam breach floods pose significant threats to downstream areas, necessitating accurate prediction of inundation scenarios to mitigate potential damage. This paper presents a novel methodology for hydrodynamic modeling of dam breach floods, leveraging a comprehensive approach that integrates satellite imagery, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and Google Earth Engine (GEE) to forecast downstream inundation scenarios. Specifically, UAVs were utilized to generate high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of the flood-affected areas, ensuring precise representation of topography in the model. The approach incorporates Cartosat DEM data for catchment modeling, while NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission data, integrated with GEE, facilitated accurate estimation of rainfall in ungagged catchment areas. Furthermore, the Hydrological Engineering Center-Hydrological Modeling System was employed for rainfall-runoff simulation and flood hydrograph derivation, followed by application of the HEC River Analysis System (RAS) for hydrodynamic modeling under dam breach conditions. This integrated modeling approach was applied as a case study of Banaskantha district, Gujarat, India. The outcome was the generation of scenario maps based on HEC-RAS results, which include flood extent, water depth, and flow velocity, highlighting downstream areas affected by flooding. Validation of the hydrodynamic dam breach model performance was conducted using actual field measurements and simulated results, employing statistical analysis methods including Support Vector Regression (SVR) and linear regression to determine coefficient of determination (R2), Root-Mean-Square Error, and Mean Absolute Error of observed and simulated data. The coefficient of determination (R2) values for measured and simulated flow (0.91) and water level (0.86) calculated using SVR demonstrate strong correlation between observed and simulated values. This integrated study of hydrodynamic modeling in data-scarce areas aids in accurate estimation of future probable flooding in downstream areas in the event of a dam break, underscoring the potential of advanced surveying and modeling techniques in flood assessment and management. Ultimately, this integration of technologies aims to enhance community resilience and mitigate socioeconomic costs associated with dam breach floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate crop classification is crucial for agricultural monitoring and decision-making. Remote sensing's ultimate goal is the precise extraction and classification of crops. Based on a cloud platform, the study area of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh India, presents a multi-crop classification approach using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and machine learning techniques. The study area encompasses a diverse agricultural region with three major crop types. After pre-processing, spectral and textural features were extracted. It compares the traditional four machine learning algorithms employed, adding the NDVI, NDBI, MNDWI, and BSI vegetation indices for multi-crop classification enhances accuracy, and offers diverse and complementary information. The overall classification accuracy achieved 95%, with individual crop accuracies ranging from 85 to 96%. The scalable and simple classification method proposed in this research gives full play to the advantages of cloud platforms in data and operation, and the traditional machine learning compared with other algorithms can effectively improve the classification accuracy, and individual areas of crop production are calculated. The results underscored the reliability of GEE-based crop mapping in the region, demonstrating a satisfactory level of classification accuracy, surpassing 97% across distinct time intervals in overall accuracy values, Kappa coefficients, and F1-Score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires present a major global environmental issue, exacerbated by climate change. The Iranian Northern Zagros Forests, characterized by a Mediterranean climate, are particularly vulnerable to fires during hot, dry summers. This study investigates the impact of climate change on forest fires in these forests from 2006 to 2023. The analysis revealed significant year-to-year fluctuations, with notable fire occurrence in years 2007, 2010, 2021, and 2023. The largest burned area occurred in 2021, covering 2655.66 ha, while 2006 had the smallest burned area of 175.27 ha. Climate variables such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, heat waves, and solar radiation were assessed for their effects on fire behavior. Strong correlations were found between higher average temperatures and larger burned areas, as well as between heat waves and increased fire frequency. Additionally, higher wind speeds were linked to larger burned areas, suggesting that increased wind speeds may enhance fire spread. Multiple linear regression models demonstrated high predictive accuracy, explaining 84% of the variance in burned areas and 69.6% in the variance in fire frequency. These findings document the growing wildfire risk in the Northern Zagros region due to climate change, highlighting the urgent need to integrate scientific research with policies to develop effective wildfire management strategies for sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated use of remote sensing and machine learning stands out as a powerful and well-established approach for dealing with various environmental monitoring tasks, including deforestation detection. In this paper, we present a tunable, data-driven methodology for assessing deforestation in the Amazon biome, with a particular focus on protected conservation reserves. In contrast to most existing works from the specialized literature that typically target vast forest regions or privately used lands, our investigation concentrates on evaluating deforestation in particular, legally protected areas, including indigenous lands. By integrating the open data and resources available through the Google Earth Engine, our framework is designed to be adaptable, employing either anomaly detection methods or artificial neural networks for classifying deforestation patterns. A comprehensive analysis of the classifiers' accuracy, generalization capabilities, and practical usage is provided, with a numerical assessment based on a case study in the Amazon rainforest regions of São Félix do Xingu and the Kayapó indigenous reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ili River Basin, a crucial transboundary river in the arid region of Central Asia, plays a significant role in the region's ecology and water resources. However, current methods for monitoring glacier area changes in this region face challenges in automation and accuracy due to the complex terrain and climatic conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for monitoring glacier area changes in the Ili River Basin from 1992 to 2020, with a focus on improving data accuracy and processing efficiency. Utilizing the Landsat data series, we employed the random forest (RF) classification algorithm within the GEE platform to extract glacier areas, optimizing a multidimensional feature set using the Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance method, and applied visual interpretation for data refinement. Our results demonstrated that the GEE platform, combined with the RF algorithm, provided high accuracy in glacier monitoring, achieving an overall accuracy of 89% and a kappa coefficient of 0.85. During the study period, the glacier area in the Ili River Basin decreased by 184.76 km2, with an average annual retreat rate of 6.84 km2, most notably between 3800 and 4400 m in elevation. The analysis revealed that temperature changes had a more pronounced impact on glacier dynamics than precipitation. This approach significantly enhances image utilization efficiency and data processing speed, offering a reliable tool for monitoring glacier dynamics. Future research should focus on integrating additional environmental variables and extending the temporal scope to further refine glacier dynamics modeling and predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers in the Pamir region are experiencing rapid melting and receding due to climate change, which has a significant implication for the Amu Darya river basin. Predominantly, surging glaciers, which undergo unpredictable advances, are potentially leading to the obstruction of high-altitude river channels and also glacial lake outburst floods. This study investigates surging glaciers in the Pamir region, specifically focusing on the Medvezhiy (M) and Russian Geographical Society (RGS) glaciers, using long-term reanalysis data records, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and satellite data during the last decades. Significant changes in regional climate were identified, including increasing precipitation rates (13.3 mm/year) and land surface temperature (0.1°C/decade). Between 1991 to 2023, the RGS glacier experienced a significant advancement around 1448.3 ± 30.0 m, while the Medvezhiy glacier showed a decrease of −703.5 ± 30.0 m. There is a substantial increase in the number (from 19 to 75) and area (from 4889.7 ± 0.6 m2 to 15345.5 ± 0.6 m2) of RGS lakes along with supra-glacier ponds based on a comparison of ArcGIS base map in 2011 and high-resolution UAV data in 2023. For M glacier, number of lakes increased from 4 to 22 but the lake area declined from 10715.2 ± 0.6 to 365.6 ± 0.6 m2. It was noted that the largest lake in 2011 with an area of 10406.4 ± 0.6 m2 at the southeastern portion of the glacier was not observed in 2023 due to outburst. Both the glaciers have substantially impacted the river flow (Abdukahor river) by obstructing a significant proportion of river channel in recent years and might cause outburst floods. These findings enhance the understanding of glacier dynamics and their impacts on the surrounding areas, emphasizing the urgent need for continued monitoring and appropriate management strategies, with a specific focus on surging glaciers and the associated risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface soil moisture is a key hydrologic state variable that greatly influences the global environment and human society. Its significant decrease in the Mediterranean region, registered since the 1950s, and expected to continue in the next century, threatens soil health and crops. Microwave remote sensing techniques are becoming a key tool for the implementation of climate-smart agriculture, as a means for surface soil moisture retrieval that exploits the correlation between liquid water and the dielectric properties of soil. In this study, a workflow in Google Earth Engine was developed to estimate surface soil moisture in the agricultural fields of the Marche region (Italy) through Synthetic Aperture Radar data. Firstly, agricultural areas were extracted with both Sentinel-2 optical and Sentinel-1 radar satellites, investigating the use of Dual-Polarimetric Entropy-Alpha decomposition's bands to improve the accuracy of radar data classification. The results show that Entropy and Alpha bands improve the kappa index obtained from the radar data only by 4% (K = 0.818), exceeding optical accuracy in urban and water areas. However, they still did not allow to reach the overall optical accuracy (K = 0.927). The best classification results are reached with the total dataset (K = 0.949). Subsequently, Water Cloud and Tu Wien models were implemented on the crop areas using calibration parameters derived from literature, to test if an acceptable accuracy is reached without in situ observation. While the first model's accuracy was inadequate (RMSD = 12.3), the extraction of surface soil moisture using Tu Wien change detection method was found to have acceptable accuracy (RMSD = 9.4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme rainfall can severely affect all vegetation types, significantly impacting crop yield and quality. This study aimed to assess the response and recovery of vegetation phenology to an extreme rainfall event (with total weekly rainfall exceeding 500 mm in several cities) in Henan Province, China, in 2021. The analysis utilized multi-sourced data, including remote sensing reflectance, meteorological, and crop yield data. First, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series was calculated from reflectance data on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Next, the 'phenofit' R language package was used to extract the phenology parameters—the start of the growing season (SOS) and the end of the growing season (EOS). Finally, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, v.26.0.0.0) software was used for Duncan's analysis, and Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB, v.R2022b) software was used to analyze the effects of rainfall on land surface phenology (LSP) and crop yield. The results showed the following. (1) The extreme rainfall event's impact on phenology manifested directly as a delay in EOS in the year of the event. In 2021, the EOS of the second growing season was delayed by 4.97 days for cropland, 15.54 days for forest, 13.06 days for grassland, and 12.49 days for shrubland. (2) Resistance was weak in 2021, but recovery reached in most areas by 2022 and slowed in 2023. (3) In each year, SOS was predominantly negatively correlated with total rainfall in July (64% of cropland area in the first growing season, 53% of grassland area, and 71% of shrubland area). In contrast, the EOS was predominantly positively correlated with rainfall (51% and 54% area of cropland in the first and second growing season, respectively, and 76% of shrubland area); however, crop yields were mainly negatively correlated with rainfall (71% for corn, 60% for beans) and decreased during the year of the event, with negative correlation coefficients between rainfall and yield (−0.02 for corn, −0.25 for beans). This work highlights the sensitivity of crops to extreme rainfall and underscores the need for further research on their long-term recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is considered to be the most complex but least understood of all natural hazards, affecting more people. Its reappearance in drought-prone areas every few years is almost certain. Also, they lack sudden and easily identified onsets and terminations. Under the background of global climate change, the impact from drought exhibits the characteristics of complexity and multi-process. It has a significant impact on the water resources, agriculture, society, and economy hence needs attention. Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) is used for observing the change in vegetation that causes agricultural drought. Since the land surface temperature has minimum influence from cloud contamination and humidity in the air, so the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) is used for studying the temperature change. Dryness or wetness of soil is a major indicator for agriculture and a comprehensive assessment of vegetation and temperature stress is achieved from MODIS satellite data in Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for pre and post monsoon season from 2008 to 2022 (15- year period). Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) is used for observing the change in vegetation that causes agricultural drought. Since the land surface temperature has minimum influence from cloud contamination and humidity in the air, so the Temperature Condition Index (TCI) is used for studying the temperature change. The research also incorporates precipitation data from WorldClim to investigate its influence on the Vegetation Health Index (VHI). Mann Kendall trend analysis is employed to examine spatio-temporal variations in drought severity, for both pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. The results emphasize the sensitivity of VHI to shifts in rainfall patterns, providing valuable insights for drought monitoring and management. In essence, this study enhances understanding of drought dynamics and emphasizes the significance of Remote Sensing data and climate information for effective drought assessment and mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite its significance, net primary productivity is rarely used as an indicator of climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation net primary productivity and its response to climate variability in the Welmel watershed, southeastern Ethiopia. The investigation utilized data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations accessed through the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform. To evaluate the trend and response of net primary productivity to climatic factors, the Mann-Kendall and Theil Sen’s tests, the Pearson correlation coefficient, and stability analysis through the coefficient of variation of net primary productivity were utilized. The analysis of the temporal trend of net primary productivity revealed that the entire watershed, forest, wood, and cultivated land areas exhibited decreasing trends with net primary productivity values of -0.681, -4.361, -1.41, and − 3.25 g C m− 2/year, respectively. On the other hand, shrubs and grazing land displayed increasing trends of 1.15 and 2.04 g C m− 2/year, respectively. The wood and shrubland trends were statistically significant (p

Abstract Due to climate and human activity, water supply in Jharkhand, India, fluctuates. This study measured AWS and AWA in Jharkhand, India. MODIS NDVI and Terra Climate data processed by Google Earth Engine (GEE) are used in the analysis. Based on mean annual values for NDWI, run-off, precipitation, and ET, AWS and AWA are categorised. Results show significant regional differences in ET, precipitation, runoff, AWS, and AWA in Jharkhand. Purbi Singhbhum has far higher ET rates than Garhwa, Palamu, and Chatra. High AWS levels in Sahibganj, Godda, Pakur, Garhwa, and Kodarma indicate serious water scarcity. Therefore, these locations need focused water management approaches. Different districts including Giridih, Chatra, Jamtara, Latehar, Simdega, and Hazaribagh have different levels of AWS, highlighting the need for individualised treatments. The AWA index helps resource managers make educated decisions by detecting water-scarce places. Climate variability affects temperatures and precipitation, worsening AWS in high-AWS areas. Water scarcity mitigation requires local infrastructure development and water management measures. To verify remote sensing data accuracy, future study should improve data resolution and include in-situ measurements. These findings can help policymakers and stakeholders in Jharkhand create efficient water resource management strategies to reduce water stress and assure water supply.